How do you prepare for the rigorous physical requirements of high elevation adventure? Strength and endurance are key, but are only part of a more complex equation. How do you prepare for changes in altitude, exposure, diet, etc.? How do you mentally prepare? Learn from others and share what you know about training in advance for outdoor adventures.
Mike,
I am only 62 and, due to my lungs, I am now at about 1.2 mph when I have a full pack and I am heading uphill. Yes, getting old sucks. However, even if I only get to enjoy 6 uphill miles a day, I am grateful for every step I take in the Sierra.
Awesome that your kids backpack with you!
My daughter still goes out with me, but expects to be the kid while I take care of camp chores like building the tent, I hauled in, cooking on the stove, I hauled in, etc.
My son says I abused him through out his childhood and junior high years since I force marched him on hikes and made him sleep on the ground.
Hi Mike, your posts on heart issues have always been both illuminating and also a bit scary. My dad was sailing along running marathons and the like when he was first hit by a stroke (age 65?) and then a massive heart attack at age 67 that he survived but required seven bypasses. So I try to keep track of things, but experiences like yours are informative. I've lost one student about ten years younger than me (and this was ten years ago or so) to heart failure (I recall the heart attack occurred while taking a stress test, if I remember the story) and two older friends (both about 10 years older than me) on the operating table to heart attacks within the last 5 or 6 years. Last year at age 63 (or just short of that), the scan they did to look for "escaped" prostate cancer did not show evidence of deposits in my coronary arteries, which I took as a good sign, as did the lack of evidence for joint issues with my shoulder and elbows, that had been giving me issues at the time (knees were below the level of the scan), but remote stuff is not as good as the "ground truth". I've now reached the age (64) when my dad became notably limited in outdoor mobility owing to what I think was a degenerating hip, originally damaged on a fall while climbing Mt Goddard with me 15 years earlier (fall took place in 1977 and he became unable to carry a full pack as of 1992). We worried about our hips a lot because I took a very hard fall onto some rocks crossing a stream in 1979 and was periodically bothered until 1995, but I think issues I attributed to my hip were actually connected to back spasms; I had some disabling hip spasms of sorts on at least two trips.
Anyhow I find that, outside of heart and cancer issues, I have in fact had to more seriously train both in strength and in "hiking" exercises (weighted hill climbs or stairwell climbs) than in years past to maintain a good level of mobility; changes in training I made starting in the summer of 2022 seem to have paid off. I think the biggest fall off in hiking performance has been with a full pack and one of the issues is that I still carry a very heavy pack (50+ lbs going up those horrid Hetch Hetchy switchbacks in 90+ heat with Dawn). In that fully loaded state it seems that Lee (21) and Dawn (17) have now passed me when grinding uphill with a load, but I haven't changed the pack weight distribution as I did when I "passed" my dad in fall of 1979 (when he was 51 and I was 20). On the crossover trip, I seriously reduced my dad's pack weight and raised mine, so I was carrying a significantly heavier pack, which was also fair because I was a bigger guy (at the time 5'8" 150 vs 5'4" 135). I can't get myself to distribute weight more to Lee and Dawn partly because I am now 5'10+" 160 and Dawn is 5'1" 125 and Lee is 5'4" 125. So neither of them has taken the lead in terms of carrying stuff (as well as camp chores, etc), as I did from my dad when I was 20 and he was 51. In spite of this, I can still average 2 mph (very) fully loaded for most uphill hikes, including rest stops, as long as we don't have harsh conditions as those that prevailed at Hetch Hetchy (Dawn and I made the 11 mile 3500' gain hike in about 7.5 hours including 5 long rest stops).
